2nd year maths...

You must ask what you want. Are you here to be a serious mathematician or are you here to get a maths degree by following the path of least resistance?

I'm an ex-first year just like yourself. From what I hear, the Algebra this coming year is very difficult indeed, and a bit of a spade in the face given we did so little work in this field this past year. This will certainly be the biggest challenge.

Elsewhere, on the Analysis front, I hear Differentiation is quite torturous, but that Analysis III is quite approachable. But here we hit upon a problem. Anthony Manning is on study leave and so we are once again up to be screwed in analysis. Who will be his replacement? Walters? Maleva? No, probably not. But we had better cross all our fingers and toes, because I don't want a repeat of Analysis II.

Vector Analysis and yet the same issue. I am led to believe that Stefan Adams is also away, so we need a new lecturer for this course, too. My bet is Jochen Voss, but who's to say until we see the lecture list (oh, I know - Dave Wood).

So it'll be an interesting year. And apparently rather hard. Oh well...

Reply 3

They told us back in the day to expect a 10% drop from your first year to your second. Personally I dropped only by 2%, but know people that droppedfar more than 10%. Depends how hard you work, really. Your honeymoon period is over, and you should knuckle down to some "proper" maths.

I'm loving the initial replies, essentially saying that to do well on the Maths degree you should avoid the maths modules :p:

Try and get some assessed modules on the go. It's worth doing well on the essay, and MNN is a fun module (if stressful). Even with assessed modules I found the second year exams to be by far the most stressful! Incidentally, I actually found myself enjoying many of my third year exams, so you at leats have that to look forward to...

Decide your modules asap. Not deciding absolutely whether to move up to the four year course until the second term of my third year really screwed me. I got some real quality marks in my third year but they were dragged down so much by exams I was forced into taking, and a lack of overCATting. Yes, overcat. Do it. When you get your results it all becomes worth it.

I found Differentiation to be alright when I did it. Unless you mean you found it all rather dry and boring, in which case i'm inclined to agree. If Walters lectures you for anything, get ready; I turned up to his first Ergodic Theory lecture and I have NEVER been so bored in an academic building in my entire life. Nice bloke, but urgh. Jochen is a decent lecturer so it'll not be the end of the world if he lectures Wector [sic] Analysis again.

Reply 4

aqfrenzy

OP

yeah we had walters for analysis I i think, didnt bother turning up after his first 'lecture'.

personally i don't care about the maths, i'm here to attempt to get a 2.1 even if it means taking more modules outside maths..in first year i didnt do any optional maths modules only the core ones even though it turned out i did much better in the maths :s-smilie:

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anyway if people can give ideas as to what (non) maths modules are easiest/best for 2nd year, would be much appreciated. also, we can take second year non-math modules in third year right? which of these are worth doing in third year when it counts for more?

Reply 5

I_Like_Cake

The secret to maths at Warwick if you find it challenging is to spend lots of time choosing your modules. Look at all the modules in the university and pick the easy ones. These are usually in the language department and the buisness school. I found my first year the hardest followed by the second, and found the third year the easiest. This is all down to the larger amounts of cats you can take from outside the department in years 2 and 3.

Some modules I found easy include:

Numerical analysis
Modelling Natures Nonlinearity (not easy but ok with help from friends)
French 2
Simulation
Forcasting
Web Applications Development
PoF
Foundations of Finance and Accounting
Starting a Business
Third year essay

Make sure you choose the harder modules in the second year as the third year counts for more.

Is it possible to do well in Numerical Analysis without having done Programming for Scientist or indeed, having no programming knowledge whatsoever? The module looks really interesting but I've never done any programming before :frown:

Reply 6

El Matematico

Krush

Is it possible to do well in Numerical Analysis without having done Programming for Scientist or indeed, having no programming knowledge whatsoever? The module looks really interesting but I've never done any programming before :frown:

Have you looked at the PYDC entry for it? I don't think you need any programming experience, but I think you do need to be able to use MatLab. I'm not sure though.

Reply 7

El Matematico

Have you looked at the PYDC entry for it? I don't think you need any programming experience, but I think you do need to be able to use MatLab. I'm not sure though.

Yeah I had a look at the PYDC, they say that Programming for Scientist (java programming) is a prerequisite, but all the exercise sheets for Numerical Methods are based on Matlab and not java. I did pretty well in Maths by Computer but that was a long time ago now, and I can't remember anything.

Reply 8

England Captain

13

There seem to be people on here who have done the third year, so can i also ask the same question regarding easy third year modules :biggrin:

I'll also get back to the original question at a later point when i have some time.

Reply 9

Happy1

14

From what ive heard, steer well clear of Algebra II

Reply 10

Happy1

From what ive heard, steer well clear of Algebra II

It's compulsory, unless you're doing maths+econ/maths+phil/Maths+physics. It's a very interesting module, despite being harder than any other module done so far.

Reply 11

El Matematico

England Captain

There seem to be people on here who have done the third year, so can i also ask the same question regarding easy third year modules :biggrin:

I'll also get back to the original question at a later point when i have some time.

It depends what your area of interest is. Some maths modules are easier than others, but it really depends on where your strengths lie. Complex analysis stands out as a course that most maths students do, and Introduction to Topology is also a popular course. If there were any core courses in the third year, those two most probably would be. I did pretty much entirely pure courses and almost all the Algebra courses available to me so I can give you more specific information on these courses if you like.

Reply 12

England Captain

There seem to be people on here who have done the third year, so can i also ask the same question regarding easy third year modules :biggrin:

I'll also get back to the original question at a later point when i have some time.

Like my good pal El Matematico said, it depends entirely where tha strengths are. Having said that, I urinated all over the following: QToODEs, Knot Theory, Fractal Geometry, and Complex Analysis. I'd say that, bar FG which does get rather Metric Spacesy (and which Adam Epstein may lecture next year for Anthony Manning - if he does, definitely don't do it), it would be hard to do terribly on these modules.

History of Maths was an easy source of marks for a lot of people but I personally couldn't be assed with it when it came around to the first essay Well, he called it an "essay," but he refused to mark anything that goes off one side of A4 :p:

Avoid Functional Anaysis II like the plague. It's the most boring module I've ever taken, and one of the hardest. FAI, on the other hand, GREAT module if only for The James Cooper Robinson.

I think that covers everything I know. Groups and Reps apparently isn't bad (El Matematico can tell you more about that), and if you're that way inclined and fancy a slightly easier ride you could take a 24 CAT language course.

Oh, and if you've not already done them, doing one of Number Theory or Variational Principles breaks up third year revision brilliantly in my opinion.

Reply 13

England Captain

13

Cheers for the info guys!

As for the second year, in my opinion stay well clear of the 4 stats modules. Maths stats A is just an absolute nightmare with a jan exam which is really tough! The average this year was below 40%, and then it got moderated, (for me 8% higher). I've also heard that maths stats B and random events are ridiculously hard as well. As for the easiest module stochastic processes it turns out not to be so easy as it is rumoured to get scaled down every year! I expected to get well over a first with it but only got 65%!

Yes algebra 2 is extremely .......................... extremely hard but you'll have to fail just like everybody else does! Metric spaces is really hard as well, but its pretty damn core if you want to do the 4 year degree it would seem! The exam is about half definitions as well though.

PDE's is really good, very lenient marking this year, i would recommend it if you can put up with lecturer who is really nice but always goes out of his way to ask you whether everything is ok!

The second year essay takes up lots of time for not that much gain in the end as it is only 6 cats, so moderate your time well. Sometimes its better to work on assignments when everyone else around you is working on the essay.

Vector analysis is a good module looking back on it because it had a really easy exam. Everyone disliked the lecturer though who may be changing so it shouldn't matter.

If you haven't taken number theory i would advice taking it in the second year.

MNN is a good module, don't have a clue what happened in the lectures though! Except the one time someone got dave wood a shopping trolley full of beer! The last assignment is also hard, so try to do as well as you can on the first one.

Intro to biology was a complete farce, i didn't like the lecturer, he asks for too much crowd participation. And the exam had loads of errors in, so it got marked up drastically. Didn't really learn much though, the whole module can be done on first year diff. eqns knowledge! So I probably recommend it.

Everything else is ok i suppose,... depends how good you are!

Reply 14

Just for a second opinion on the second year:
- My housemate's overall Maths Stats mark was brought up greatly by MSB. he seems to think it's alright, and he was a big fan of the lecturer.
- I think if you're on the MMath you HAVE to do both MS and PDEs before the fourth year. This may have changed but I'm sure the rule applied to me.
- I think you can either "get" MS or you can just be horribly awful at it. Luckily I fell into the former category. If you do PDEs, DO NO UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LOOK AT THE 2007 PAPER, even if you want a brutally hard challenge before your exam. It WILL scare you, and you WON'T be able to do any of it.
- The second MNN assignment brought my overall mark up to 80%, so it can't have been that difficult. You won't believe Dave Wood when he tells you that students enjoy doing the poster (I didn't!), but once you get a good story it's great fun.

- Intro to Math Bio lecturer. My housemate and sort-of girlfriend thing at the time, who were both keen swimmers, were at the pool when Hugo van den Berg broke his arm (or something). When they told me, I LOLed. That's how muhc I HATED that lecturer. Horrible man who took pleasure in belittling his class.

Ohh yes, I remember what I left out now. Third year, Topics in Math Bio, which doesn't have Intro to Math Bio as a pre-requisite. Much better module, If Markus Kirklionis lectures it again, do it. He's good fun and the exam he set looked pretty easy. Shame I dropped it for Measure Theory :p:

Reply 15

El Matematico

JohnnySPal

Just for a second opinion on the second year:
- My housemate's overall Maths Stats mark was brought up greatly by MSB. he seems to think it's alright, and he was a big fan of the lecturer.
- I think if you're on the MMath you HAVE to do both MS and PDEs before the fourth year. This may have changed but I'm sure the rule applied to me.
- I think you can either "get" MS or you can just be horribly awful at it. Luckily I fell into the former category. If you do PDEs, DO NO UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LOOK AT THE 2007 PAPER, even if you want a brutally hard challenge before your exam. It WILL scare you, and you WON'T be able to do any of it.
- The second MNN assignment brought my overall mark up to 80%, so it can't have been that difficult. You won't believe Dave Wood when he tells you that students enjoy doing the poster (I didn't!), but once you get a good story it's great fun.

- Intro to Math Bio lecturer. My housemate and sort-of girlfriend thing at the time, who were both keen swimmers, were at the pool when Hugo van den Berg broke his arm (or something). When they told me, I LOLed. That's how muhc I HATED that lecturer. Horrible man who took pleasure in belittling his class.

Ohh yes, I remember what I left out now. Third year, Topics in Math Bio, which doesn't have Intro to Math Bio as a pre-requisite. Much better module, If Markus Kirklionis lectures it again, do it. He's good fun and the exam he set looked pretty easy. Shame I dropped it for Measure Theory :p:

Alright pal, hows things? I'm not sure thats true though; you have to do at least one of them in your second year if youre an MMath student, but I don't think you have to do both at any point. One of my MMath housemates didn't do PDE's and he's never said anything about having to do it, but I guess its something to check if any second years don't do one of them this year.

Reply 16

El Matematico

Alright pal, hows things? I'm not sure thats true though; you have to do at least one of them in your second year if youre an MMath student, but I don't think you have to do both at any point. One of my MMath housemates didn't do PDE's and he's never said anything about having to do it, but I guess its something to check if any second years don't do one of them this year.

I'm good son, how are tricks your end? I'm off down to Epsom tomorrow to see Lauren, with the aim of being in Cologne on the 31st. Travelling... EEK!

I was always under that impression in the second year, any rode. I could have misread the PYDC or something. I think the matter is irrelevent anyway, because I think you'd be crazy to not take Metric Spaces in your second year, but that's just me.

Reply 17